High levels of lead found in Benton Harbor, Michigan, reveal shocking environmental racism.
Flint Michigan
Governor charged in Flint water poisoning
January 31, 2021Rick Snyder, former Governor of Michigan, was charged with two counts of willful neglect of duty, escaping the more serious charges facing other defendants.
Stop Nestlé water grab
July 1, 2020Nestlé Corporation is now being allowed to withdraw up to 400 gallons of water per minute from three wells in northern Michigan, including a well near the headwaters of Twin and Chippewa Creeks, Michigan. It is unsustainable.
Readers’ Views: January-February 2020, Part One
January 22, 2020Readers’ Views on Capitalism and climate; Mideast upheaval; Trump the Mullah?; war crime hero; Trump’s judges; detransition debate; and women’s liberation.
Readers’ Views, July-August 2019: Part 2
June 27, 2019Readers’ Views on the economy and dialectics of liberation; environmental racism; no nukes!; and voices from behind the bars.
Readers’ Views: May-June 2019
May 6, 2019Readers’ Views on: Socialism and a philosophy of revolution; Sudan in revolt; Iran vs. Iranians; Flint, Mich., play captures voices; Notre-Dame and fracking on native land; gun control debate; labor strikes; debate on fascism; Trump and DeVos; and voices from behind bars.
Detroit women rally
March 10, 2019An in-person report of the Jan, 19, 2019, “sister march”–sponsored by Women’s March Michigan, a separate organization from the National Women’s March–which brought nearly 1,000 women to a rally at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History.
Flint water battles
September 27, 2018Michigan’s Attorney General chose the easy route of spending money prosecuting 15 scapegoats as a substitute for replacing the lead service lines that continue to poison citizens of Flint, Michigan.
Readers’ Views, May-June 2018
May 10, 2018Readers’ Views takes up: women’s liberation, youth in the battle, Blacks vs. racism, border cop thugs, Middle East struggles, and voices from behind bars.
Flint: a TV movie
March 12, 2018The TV movie “Flint” presented the human tragedy created by the Flint, Michigan, emergency manager, switching the city to water from the Flint River and rendering it all poisonous and undrinkable.
Review of “Flint,” a Lifetime TV movie
February 2, 2018A review of the Lifetime TV movie “Flint,” which brings to life the ongoing four-year battle by four women who became activists against the State of Michigan in the face of serious water pollution in Flint, Michigan.
Flint-Selma International Women’s Day Solidarity March
March 7, 2017An International Women’s Day March in Flint in solidarity with the Selma-to-Montgomery March 52 years ago highlighted Flint residents’ ongoing struggle for civil and human rights.
Detroiters oppose school closings
February 7, 2017Report of the “Emergency Community Meeting on School Closings” in Detroit, MI, taking up and condemning Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to close 38 schools, most of them in Detroit.
Readers’ Views: January-February 2017, Part I
January 31, 2017Readers’ Views on: environmental and social crises; Martin Luther King Day; healthcare crisis, Donald Trump and the election; brutal “justice”; and who reads News & Letters.
Oakland, Detroit march on Martin Luther King Day
January 26, 2017Reports by participants of celebrations and protests on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Oakland, Calif., and Detroit, Mich.
Flint water still not safe to drink
September 11, 2016Citizens of Flint, Michigan, continue to be poisoned by lead in their water and pipes as Governor Rick Snyder requests grossly inadequate funding for needed repairs and refuses to take responsibility for the crisis.
I. Discontent, revolt and reaction in the U.S.
May 6, 2016Part I of the Draft Perspectives 2016: Discontent is seething in the U.S. among workers, youth, Blacks, women, LGBTQ, including elements of the new society. Fear of revolution is powering neo-fascism opposing the revolt.
Readers’ Views: March-April 2016, Part 1
March 30, 2016Readers’ Views on: Environment, Labor, Race and Philosophy; Queer Liberation; Black Lives Matter; Bolivian Social Movements; Trumpery’s Fascism & Racism.
The anguish that is Flint, Michigan
March 8, 2016Greed and racism promulgated the crisis in Flint, where water with high lead content was used by the mostly poor Black residents for over a year, poisoning an entire city with especially terrible consequences for Flint’s children.
Detroit, Flint — Water is a Human Right
January 25, 2016Discussion of the fight against water shutoffs in Detroit by a participant and a Flint resident discusses the problem of lead in the City of Flint’s drinking water.
Readers’ Views: January-February 2016, Part 2
Philosophy, theory and News & Letters; Flint Part Ii; Mumia Abu-Jamal; Voices from behind the bars.
Woman as Reason: Olga Domanski: embodiment of Woman as Reason
January 23, 2016An in memoriam to Olga Domanski from a women’s liberationist’s point of view.
Flint water crisis
December 15, 2015Flint water was contaminated with dangerous lead levels.
Pricey water in Flint
September 3, 2015How the high water bills payed by the people of Flint, Michigan, are the result of manipulation from Detroit and the City of Flint.
Flint’s emergency manager targets labor
February 29, 2012Flint, Mich.—In November, Flint was placed under the control of an emergency manager for the second time. This time is different, because under a law passed in March of last year the financial manager can end collective bargaining agreements (with state approval), run up debt, increase property taxes and sell property.
The first time around Flint [=>]
Vetoing city elections: Benton Harbor and Michigan’s “emergency financial manager law”
May 23, 2011Flint, Mich.– Michigan has a new emergency financial manager law that threatens the very existence of local governments and of collective bargaining agreements. This law, effective March 16, is the direct result of the election of a Republican governor, Rick Snyder, and a Republican House and Senate.
Under the old law, the financial manager effectively took [=>]